It takes a lot of tea plants to keep every consumer’s pot and cup full. Some people may think that conflicts with the modern world’s increasing focus on sustainability. Rather than producing as much tea as possible, attention is turning towards protecting and preserving the environment. For the wholesale tea supplier, seller or drinker, this shift may actually help business in the long term.
What do we mean by sustainability?
Sustainability is about placing long-term survival over short-term profits. A push for constant growth can lead to burning through resources until nothing is left. In the case of tea production, this could include leaving soil depleted of nutrients, contaminated or with a reduced water supply, destruction of other local plants to allow more room for tea, killing of vital insects and other wildlife through overuse of pesticides, poor treatment of laborers, and employment of single-use plastic for storage.
Making tea production more sustainable could include reducing the use of chemicals, taking active steps to support the growth of other plants and animals, better irrigation and water collection facilities (possibly even creating wetland areas), ensuring laborers have fair pay and safe working conditions, and reducing and reusing packing materials. Done properly, this will not just improve the biodiversity of the area and mean a happier, healthier workforce, but it will ensure that the soil can be used to grow high-quality tea for many years to come.
Why every wholesale tea supplier and client should care about sustainability
The most obvious advantage of growing tea sustainably is clear. It means long-term stability for the business. It may produce fewer tea leaves and cost more to implement, which can cut into immediate profits, but your plantation is not going to die because the soil has run out of nutrients and the land is barely viable anymore. If laborers are properly compensated, then they are more likely to be loyal to the business and to give it their best efforts, rather than searching for better prospects elsewhere.
It is not just your own tea supply that will benefit from a sustainable approach. It also has advantages for the wider world. Other plants, such as ferns and mushrooms, will be able to grow, and insects, birds and other animals will have a supply of food and clean water available. Even marine wildlife may benefit because a reduction in pesticides and plastics means less pollution reaching the ocean.
Practices such as reducing the use of chemicals will change the flavor of the tea. Whether this is good or bad is likely to be a matter of personal taste, but it is certainly something that needs consideration. Many customers, however, will feel more comfortable knowing they are not consuming potentially harmful pesticides, even in minuscule amounts.
Sustainability first:
Making tea production more sustainable is a complex process, but it comes with a range of possible benefits. Many of today’s customers care deeply about the environment and about the treatment of workers, so they look for sustainability on the label when they are making their tea purchases. That is on top of the wider benefits for the whole world, and of course, ensuring that your own business is built to last.